Giving Māui a Māori voice

Cover of the English version of a new children's book on the story of Māuri fishing up the North Island, or Te Ika a Māui.

A new children's book re-telling the legend of Māui has just been published in English and Māori – a pleasing event for its Māori translator Dr Darryn Joseph, who says there's a dearth of books in te reo for younger readers.

Dr Darryn Joseph, as a judge at the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults last month (photo/New Zealand Book Awards Trust)

English version

The amount of Māori language materials being produced privately and publicly is a travesty for our te reo Māori readership, especially for the growing number of children learning te reo Māori from a young age. So when I was approached about advising and translating a new story book, I took the opportunity. Growing up, I don’t think I owned one book showing Māori culture in a fun or bright way, so How Māui Fished up the North Island, by Donovan Bixley, is certainly a positive contribution.

It’s an interesting task to be asked to assist a non-Māori speaking author to bring to life a Māori-speaking character. I commend Mr Bixley and his publisher UpStart Press for being keen to ensure authenticity, and committed to publishing a te reo Māori version at the same time, which is rare.

‘Authenticity’ is an interesting concept. What is authentic to one iwi may not be to another. What is authentic to us in Aotearoa may not resonate with our Island relations. I tried to give the author as much central and peripheral information relevant to the story, while bearing in mind the story is a re-imagining of Māui as a boy to capture the imagination of tamariki.

I like this version, a departure from the muscle-bound, lone hero trope so common in Māui re-tellings. For example, in many stories Māui punches his own nose to smear his demigod blood onto his fishhook to attract, with sacred bait, the interest of a fish of great magnitude. I don’t like the self-harm aspect, so I suggested a rough-and-tumble brother elbow instead – still blood, but with a slight twist. As the kids grow they can learn their own correct version.

I also asked Mr Bixley to represent Māui in the waka sorting out his fishing line as if playing ‘Te Whai wawewawe a Māui’, or his string game. Another re-imagining that poses the question: ‘Did Māui invent his string game while fishing?’ It is subtle and you need knowledge of Māori culture to unpack it.

Much of my input was ensuring we adhered to the story and followed current orthographical conventions (no ‘s’ on Maōri words) and so on. Mr Bixley had the ‘toki ngao pae’ (the course carving adze), and I had the ‘toki ngao matariki’ – the finer chisel to give it a finer finish. There were many little things to fix and discuss, including a visual audit of the final illustrations to make sure they were appropriate. The camp fire personification as male was corrected to female.

I wanted the translation to read like it had been written in Māori first. As a licensed translator I had a duty to do the story justice but I had my doubts. So I gave my translation to a critical reader who said, “It doesn’t sound ‘really Māori’”. Was it that awful? No, it would have been fine, as another reader of Māori said. But I didn’t want ‘fine’, I wanted ‘fantastic’, so I phoned a friend, Keri Opai.

He received his translator’s licence more than 20 years ago and he was the youngest in New Zealand to do so, and recently won an Australasian award for his corpus development of Māori mental health terms, Te Reo Hāpai. He edited my Māori by grafting his own eloquent prose onto it. All he wanted as payment was some movie theatre tickets. That was one of the most humbling parts of the journey to get this book published. I re-wrote my contract with UpStart to halve any royalties and payments, and to include Mr Opai as co-author. In the end it was a collaboration, edited by Hēni Jacob who bought a third lens to the party. I think it went from average to fantastic with our collective input.

Usually the Māori edition of a picture book comes out several years later if the book has done well enough commercially. Kevin Chapman, from Upstart, made a commitment to have it translated and published at the same time. What a fantastic acknowledgement of Māori language, along with a commitment to have this book, Māori and English editions, in the programme Duffy Books in Homes.

Are there problems, still, in the book? Of course. I reread my new copy and as soon as I saw the fishing lines in the water I had a laugh. I thought, “Oh man, my dad who was a fisherman would have laughed at me for making that mistake.” The fishing lines defy gravity as there aren’t any sinkers on them! But I’m proud to have my name attached to Mr Bixley’s fantastic illustrations and story. I hope tamariki find it a fantastic read too.

Ngā mihi nunui i tēnei wiki o te reo Māori. Āe, kia kaha te reo!

Dr Darryn Joseph (Ngāti Maniapoto) is a senior lecturer of te reo Māori at Massey University’s Te Pūtahi-a-Toi, School of Māori Knowledge. He's authored more than 23 books; mainly textbooks and chapter books for Māori immersion education. He has won the Huia Short Stories Award for te reo Māori twice and the LIANZA Librarian Te Kura Pounamu Award for "most distinguished contribution to literature for children and young adults written in Te Reo Māori".